The other day I stumbled upon The Heart, a wonderful series in the online version of The Atlantic in which authors discuss their favorite passages in literature. Browsing through the collection, I came upon John Rechy's discussion of his favorite, which is the opening sentence of William Faulkner's short story, "A Rose ...

As many of my readers know, I haven't been able to quit my day job. Fortunately, the focus of my day job is intellectual property law--a legal realm sprinkled with just enough quirky issues to keep my day job fun.
One such example is the subject of my latest post on ...

At least thirty years had passed since I first read The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Cain. I confess that during those intervening decades my memory of the short novel had faded into a vague recollection of a dark somewhat sexy crime story involving low-life hustlers that took place somewhere in ...

I have written here and elsewhere of the power of a great opening line. If you can imagine a bookstore as a crowded singles bar with each book hoping to get lucky, that first sentence essentially functions as the author's pick-up line. Sure, a sexy book jacket helps, since it ...

Mark Twain
For more years than I'd care to admit, my take on Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina was perfectly summed up by fellow Missourian Mark Twain, who famously defined a "classic" as a novel "that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."
But then a few months ...

On a lounge chair near a waterfall? How about a desert isle beneath the shade of a palm tree? Or maybe on a raft floating down a lazy river? Is there a margarita on a little side table? Or perhaps a Corona with a lime wedge?
I received delightful email from ...

Never done a book event in a cigar bar, so this should be interesting--and fun (and hopefully not too smoky)!!
Here's the link to the event--and to the rest of the Bookfest events.
When: 3 pm September 23rd.
Where: Brennan's (4659 Maryland Ave., St. Louis MO)

I received an email from the folks at Goodreads asking for me to answer the following question: "If you could travel to any fictional book world, where would you go and what would you do there?"
What a great question! And one you should ask yourself as well. Here's how I ...

As you might infer, the main character in my Rachel Gold mystery series is named Rachel Gold. But back in the beginning, back many years ago, on the eve of publication of my first novel, Grave Designs, there was no Rachel Gold mystery series. Just a mystery novel featuring as ...

My epiphany occurred as I read an interview of John Updike from nearly a half century ago. Ah, I said to myself, nodding my head, so that's why I did it.
The "it" was doing something I'd never before done in all of my prior novels and short stories. Each of those ...